


i overthink your punctuation use

by lilaliacs



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - College/University, Crack, Drunk Texting, Jeno centric, M/M, this entire fic is just banter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-04
Updated: 2020-09-04
Packaged: 2021-03-07 03:09:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,734
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26290003
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lilaliacs/pseuds/lilaliacs
Summary: Jeno wishes the person texting him would give up. He hasn’t replied to them even once, and this is the fourth weekend they have tried to get him to pick them up somewhere. He has quizzed all of his friends, even some acquaintances from class, none of them drunk text him. And if they do, he has their numbers saved.i can see yoou rerading thesd pyu assJeno sighs. 00:47, his phone says.He puts his phone on silent and falls back to his pillows.
Relationships: Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Lee Jeno
Comments: 8
Kudos: 151
Collections: NOHYUCK FEST: 정답!





	i overthink your punctuation use

**Author's Note:**

> alcohol is bad for u kids

_ Ping. _

Jeno blinks his eyes open. His phone lights up with another grating noise. 

_ “Just put your phone on silent,” _ Jisung’s voice echoes through his head. 

_ “I’d never hear important calls!” _ Jeno from yesterday at lunch echoes back. 

_ “You don’t get important calls. _ ” 

This is decidedly not an important call. Jeno squints against the glare of the screen. 00:43. That’s a little earlier than usual. He doesn’t know if that’s a good or a bad thing. His brain is so sleep-frazzled, anything could be a good or a bad thing equally. 

His phone chimes again. 

Jeno releases a long breath through his nose. 

_ “Just change your phone number,”  _ Jisung had tried.

_ “I only changed it last month.” _ His voice sounds even whinier in the memory. 

_ “There’s no law keeping you from doing it again.” _

_ “But I only just memorised this one!”  _

Jeno is good at memorising. He should totally change his number again and memorise the new one. Another chime. 

**_TGHEYRE PLHGAIYING MACJLKEMORE AT TEH CLUB!!_ **

Is what greets him when he unlocks his phone. 

**_noww iuts over :((((_ **

**_wn na go home_ **

**_pick me upp_ **

**_duuuuddedeeee dpont make mw take the buis agiann_ **

_ “You could just block the number?” _ Had been Jisung’s final piece of advice. 

_ “That’s mean.” _

Jisung had thrown his hands up in defeat.

Jeno wishes the person texting him would give up too. He hasn’t replied to them even once, and this is the fourth weekend they have tried to get him to pick them up somewhere. He has quizzed all of his friends, even some acquaintances from class, none of them drunk text him. And if they do, he has their numbers saved. 

**_i can see yoou rerading thesd pyu ass_ **

Jeno sighs. 00:47, his phone says. He has an 8AM and promised Mark he’d join him on his morning run before. 

He puts his phone on silent and falls back to his pillows. 

* * *

“I think your friend is sad,” Mark deducts as he gives Jeno’s phone back to him. 

Jeno sips his smoothie, unimpressed. “Not my friend,” He says. 

“This person who thinks you’re their friend is sad,” Mark corrects. “No one gets this drunk this often without reason.” 

“Did you learn that in Psych 101?” 

“No, that’s just common sense.” Mark points to Jeno’s phone. “Also their last text last night was, and I quote,  _ I’m ducking saaaaad.  _ That typo was actually a little impressive, since they clearly disabled autocorrect.” 

Jeno frowns at the vegan breakfast burrito Mark had bought him. “I don’t care about their autocorrect, I just want them to stop texting me. I value my sleep.” 

“I know,” Mark gives back, and Jeno  _ hates _ when he uses that tone. Makes him feel like a baby. “Have you considered blocking— “

“Yeah,” Jeno interrupts. Jisung would be  _ so _ mad if he heard that he took the same advice from Mark that he ignored from him.

“But you’re not doing it because…?” 

“I don’t know,” Jeno huffs. 

“Jeno,” Mark says, and there it is again. The I-Will-Baby-Jeno-Lee-And-Nothing-Can-Stop-Me voice. “This is a random stranger who only texts you when they’re drunk. They might not even live in this  _ state _ .” 

“Their area code says they do,” Jeno mumbles, but Mark ignores it. 

“You don’t have to care about this person, you don’t know them.” 

Jeno stabs the wooden fork that came with his burrito into a piece of lettuce. Three times. Stab, stab, stab. Mark’s babying eyes are still on him as he raises it for the fourth stab. 

“I don’t care about them,” He finally replies. 

Mark shakes his head. “You thought about that too long.” 

The wooden fork drops to the table. “You  _ just _ said you think they’re sad!”

“And  _ you _ said they’re not your friend! Pick a struggle, Jen.” 

“My struggle is that I’m not getting enough sleep!”

Mark just looks at him. His eyes are filled with a very Mark-esque mix of  _ Listen to yourself _ and  _ There you have it.  _

Jeno picks the piece of lettuce up with his fingers and shoves it into his mouth. “I don’t care about them.” He repeats around it. 

“Okay,” Mark says. It’s not the agreeing kind of okay, it’s the okay of giving up on a conversation. Mark pushes his chair back and picks up his hoodie. “Finish your breakfast, you have class in 30 minutes and need a shower.” He walks to Jeno’s side and pats his shoulder. “Good run. Good talk.” 

Jeno hums around his lettuce. He hasn’t decided if he’s mad at Mark for babying him yet, but before he can decide, Mark has left the café. The rest of Jeno’s burrito tastes like defeat and he is late to his 8AM. 

* * *

“Donghyuck!” 

Jisung stops in his tracks, blinks, looks from Jeno to the pot of coffee behind him. He seems to be assessing if it’s worth it to get a cup and subsequently continue this conversation, or if he should just turn around and go back to sleep. He blinks again and his shoulders drop a little. 

“Excuse me?” He replies and it’s laced with disinterest. 

“Donghyuck,” Jeno repeats, having already turned around to prepare Jisung’s coffee for him— three sugars, at least, and about half the cup topped off with creamer. “It’s his name.” 

“Whose name?” 

Jisung drops into a chair at their tiny kitchen table heavily. 

“The guy,” Jeno urges as he perches on the chair across from him, kind of criss-cross apple sauce, kind of just an enigmatic knot of limbs. 

Jisung stares at the cup Jeno has set down in front of him. Long and hard, as if it might hold answers. 

“The guy who’s been texting me,” Jeno clarifies. 

“Oh, he has a name.” 

Jeno nods. “He has a name.” 

“Who would have thought,” Jisung hums. “How did you gather this riveting bit of information?” 

“At about three am he texted a series of very creative insults for ignoring him, and the last thing he said was something about a gravestone I would have to pay for, and to make sure to put on it: ‘ _ Here lies Donghyuck Lee, loving son, caring brother, greatest person in the world.’”  _

“Charming,” Jisung nods. “Do you know someone named Donghyuck?” 

That makes Jeno frown. “No.” 

Jisung clicks his tongue. 

“But it’s one step closer!” 

“To what, exactly?” 

“To finding out who it is.”

Jisung raises an eyebrow over the brim of his cup. “Since when is that the agenda?” 

“I don’t know,” Jeno admits. Jisung’s eyebrow stays raised, and Jeno feels supremely judged. He doesn’t think Jisung should get to judge him so early in the morning. He thinks there’s something about that on their lease. No squirming under your roommate’s scrutiny before 8AM. 

And yet, Jeno squirms. “Mark said he thinks that Donghyuck is sad.” 

“And that concerns you why?” 

“Well, he keeps texting me.” Jeno mumbles, because he  _ hopes _ Jisung wouldn’t catch it but Jisung has supernatural hearing when it’s inconvenient for Jeno, and only then, and he actually laughs at him. 

“He clearly thinks you’re someone else,” Jisung chuckles, incredulous. And then he chuckles some more. “I assume Mark already gave you the talk on not caring about random strangers so much?” 

“Not in so many words,” Jeno confirms, but catches himself. “And I don’t  _ care _ about him I’m just  _ curious—“  _

“Uh huh,” Jisung chuckles. “Sure.” This is illegal, Jeno thinks. This  _ should _ be illegal. 

Jisung’s chair screeches against the floor as he pushes it back. “Thanks for the coffee,” He says and Jeno can still hear the chuckle. Jisung pads over, puts his cup in the sink and on his way back he  _ ruffles  _ Jeno’s  _ hair. _

__ “Don’t worry so much, hyung,” He chirps light-heartedly, and the honorific sounds like mockery. Jeno thinks Jisung is not only shitting on their  _ lease  _ he is also shitting on their  _ mother tongue  _ and Jeno’s  _ dignity.  _

He also has an intense feeling of déjà-vu as Jisung leaves him sitting alone in front of his breakfast, nearly late for his Monday 8AM for the second week in a row. 

* * *

Another week, another Sunday night, early Monday morning, and another series of indecipherable texts later, and Jeno swears to himself he is taking his narrative into his own hands. Mark says that to repeat the same action over and over again and expecting a different result is the definition of madness. Jeno likes to think he’s not crazy. 

So when his phone chimes, at 1:16AM, he is ready. (When he carried the entire pot of coffee from the kitchen to his room, at 8PM, Jisung had blinked, frowned, and then walked away.) 

**is stwearr i jjust saw u jheere**

And Jeno texts back. He sends a link to an article he found on glorifying alcoholism in college, complete with links to 24/7 free hotlines and what-not. Super informative. He’s very proud of himself. 

**???????**

**im not reaadi ngall that**

**arr u here**

Jeno falls back against his pillows with a sigh. So much for his useful article. 

**no.**

  
  


**fuck**

**wanntd to assk u top walkm e homee**

**illgo llone**

**thanks fr texintg backk thouhh, i thiughz yoiu hatred me ir sth**

Jeno’s fingers hover over the screen. And they hover. And hover. And something clenches in his stomach, and it has been there since that damn breakfast burrito Mark bought him. Because Mark was right. Donghyuck is really sad. And Jeno doesn’t really know what to do, or if he even should. His fingers still hover, when a video pops up in the chat. It’s dark, bright colourful spots in it. The lights of a party. He clicks on it. 

_ “Wait what the— Oh I didn’t click that. What the hell.”  _ The camera shakes, kind of violently. Jeno can feel a bit of vertigo, something about the moving lights and all the coffee in his system and 1AM. Then a face comes into focus.  _ “I jus’ wanted to… Uh. Well. Shit, uh. ‘M kinda drunk.”  _

Somewhere behind the camera, the lights flash brighter, and Jeno can see the face clearly for the first time. And it’s a face. A Face. Donghyuck chuckles, slurs something, again, about how he’s drunk, an apology, but Jeno has stopped focussing on the words for a moment. When Donghyuck smiled, something reflected the light, sweat or glitter, and it’s super distracting. 

_ “Anyways…’M glad you don’t hate me. Just wanted to say that. I really don’t want you to hate me. I uh… I miss you. A lot. Uh. Yeah.”  _

There’s a shout somewhere close and Donghyuck lowers the phone, so all Jeno can see is a plain white shirt and his collarbones for a few seconds.  _ “Jaemin, fuck off I’m trying to talk to Yang—”  _ The video cuts off. 

He did what he set out to do, he did something different, he texted back. He doesn’t think he feels any different, though. If anything he feels a little crazy. 

His phone screen turns black, he puts it down somewhere on his blanket, and for the rest of the night, Jeno stares at his ceiling, waits for the caffeine in his system to run its course and thinks about artificial light reflecting off a cheekbone. 

* * *

“You have a crush on the weirdo in your phone.” 

Jisung’s expression is deadpan, his eyes judgemental and his movement nonchalant as he shoves a few Doritos into his mouth. 

“I don’t. And he’s not  _ in  _ my phone,” Jeno sulks. He is  _ sulking.  _ To  _ Jisung.  _

“He might as well be,” Mark chimes in and for once Jeno curses the fact that it was his turn to choose what they’re watching for movie night. If Jisung or Mark would have chosen there would have been a chance that at least one of them was too invested in the movie to judge Jeno’s life decisions. Alas,  _ Lemonade Mouth _ is going ignored in the background and Jeno’s life decisions are being judged. 

“Okay so let’s say you don’t have a crush,” Jisung allows. “Tell me again, then, how his  _ face _ was  _ glittering. _ ” 

“It was literally glittering, with makeup, or something!” Jeno says and he sounds very defensive and he doesn’t know why. 

Mark hums. “You know,” He starts, and it sounds very thoughtful. For a second there, Jeno remembers that these are his best friends who are always there for him and always listen and try to help, no matter how ridiculous his problem is. The next second he remembers that he is being  _ judged.  _

He lets Mark speak anyways. 

“You know, you might as well just go all the way.” 

Jeno makes a questioning noise in the back of his throat. 

Jisung slams a hand on his thigh. “Marry the guy in your phone,” He says. Jeno makes a louder noise in the back of his throat. 

“No,” Mark shakes his head, calmly. “Next time he texts you, try to find out where he is. And go there.” 

Jeno blinks at him. 

“My mom would be so disappointed in you,” He says eventually. “Telling me to meet strangers from the internet.” 

“Not the internet,” Jisung corrects. “Your  _ phone.”  _

“No, think about it!” Mark is raising his voice a little now. “The sooner this is over with, the sooner you can stop obsessing about it—“ 

“I’m not  _ obsessing—“  _

“And lose sleep about it. And the sooner you actually confront this dude, the sooner you can clear up that he obviously thinks he’s texting someone else, and as soon as that is established you can be over with it.” 

Mark has this quality about him, especially when he raises his voice a little and his eyes become all round and intense and his eyebrows shoot up to his hairline, where everything he says makes at least a little bit sense. So Jeno thinks this is quite the reasonable idea. He is in the middle of an indulgent nod, the widely spread social indicator that the other party has an acceptable point, when Jisung raises his hand. This of course is the widely spread social indicator that someone would like to say something, and in this specific situation that Jisung is disagreeing, but looks very out of place in the middle of Mark’s living room. 

Jisung’s counter argument is: “You’re insane.” 

Jeno aborts his indulgent nod, and Jisung continues: “Why would Jeno go talk to a super inebriated dude at some frat party in the middle of the night, when he already has his number.” 

_ Again _ , Jeno feels defensive: “I don’t talk to drunk dudes at frat parties to get their numbers,” He bristles. 

“Not the point,” Jisung says. “I’m just saying you could text him whenever. Preferably when he is not drunk off his ass and will actually remember what you tell him.” 

And that sounds so reasonable that not five minutes later,  _ Lemonade Mouth _ is paused and all three of them are huddled around Jeno’s phone. 

“Donghyuck,” Mark reads from where Jeno has opened iMessage. “Question mark, question mark, question mark. Very descriptive way to save this guy in your phone.” He goes ignored.

“Write something,” Jisung urges.

“Like what?” 

Jisung huffs and takes the phone from Jeno. He’s halfway through an appalled noise and an exaggerated lunge to keep Jisung from embarrassing him, when he remembers that he does not actually have anything to lose. Nothing. Technically. It doesn’t matter what Donghyuck thinks of him. Technically. 

Jisung hands his phone back. 

**Hello.**

Jeno levels Jisung with a glance.

“Couldn’t have said it better myself,” Mark nods from his other side. 

Jeno levels Mark with a glance. “You’re at the top of your creative writing class.” 

“Strangers in your phone don’t deserve the extent of my creative writing,” Mark reasons. 

_ Ping.  _

**oh god**

“We have thrown him off his rhythm,” Jisung assesses. 

_ Ping Ping Ping.  _

**uhhhhhhhhhhhhh**

**i’m sorry**

**i was kinda hoping you’d just ignore me forever or sth. idk what to say.**

“That seems fake. He literally got mad at you for ignoring him,” Mark says. 

“He was drunk,” Jeno allows. 

_ Ping.  _

**would it be very stupid to ask you to ignore every text i ever sent you? or to delete my number or sth?**

Mark takes his phone this time. 

**i didn’t have it saved in the first place**

“Dude,” Jeno complains. “That sounds so mean.” He grabs his phone back with the intent to not let either of them make this worse than it has to be. 

**well, that’s awkward.**

**sorry. i won’t bother you anymore then.**

Now. Jeno has never been good at texting. It’s an ongoing problem in his life. He doesn’t text back, he forgets to confirm plans, he has to be forced to save numbers, he leaves people on read for weeks. The worst of all, according to Jisung at least, is that he cannot understand text-tone. 

So it’s to no one’s surprise that when Mark reads Donghyuck’s texts shoulder and hums: “Oh, he’s upset, sorry,” that Jeno is shocked. 

**wait!**

**we should talk**

He texts back without thinking. 

“About  _ what _ ?” Jisung wants to know. “You’re making this so much harder than it has to be. Just tell him he has a wrong number.” 

**we should?**

“Say no,” Mark urges. “This could still be a very articulate plot to murder you.” 

“ _ You _ were the one who told him to go meet the stranger from the internet!” Jisung argues. 

While the two of them are distracted bickering about whose fault it would be if Jeno got murdered, Jeno has already replied. 

**yeah**

**meet me at the coffeeshop by the humanities building at 2 tomorrow?**

He hears Jisung slapping his hand to his forehead. 

“At least you won’t be murdered in a coffeeshop in broad daylight,” Mark shrugs. 

Jeno hopes so too. 

* * *

In all seriousness, he should just not care. WIth nothing to lose, no obligations or emotions that should tie him to Donghyuck, their upcoming meeting should not keep him more occupied than any regular coffee run. But Jeno is  _ occupied _ . He can’t focus enough to take notes in class, starts doodling something, forgets what he is doodling half way through, attempts to listen to the professor, questions whether he is in the right lecture to begin with. 

Checking his phone confirms that he is in fact in the right lecture. It also does nothing to stop him from opening the message thread with Donghyuck. 

For a second his fingers hover and he considers cancelling, clearing up the mix up over text and sparing himself from even another minute of nerves. But immediately the thought is followed by guilt, so he sighs and just stares at the blue and grey bubbles, waiting for lecture to end. 

When it finally does, Jeno only barely registering the professor dismissing them, somehow his brain manages to process something other than his buzzing nervous thoughts. 

“Do you think we should go to Dejun’s party on Friday?” A voice a row behind him asks. 

“Yeah, it’ll be fun!” Another replies. 

“Who’s coming?” 

“Xuxi said he will, so Hendery’s coming too. I think Renjun will be there, so he’s probably bringing Jaem and Donghyuck.” 

“I see.” 

“Yangyang. Dude. I thought you were over that. It’s been two months or something.” 

“I am. He’s too I think. Doesn’t mean it’s not a little weird.” 

“A little, but Dejun will literally be so annoying if you don’t come.” 

The voices trail off, the two probably leaving the lecture hall like normal people. Jeno though stays rooted to his seat for a couple seconds. 

Several realisations swirl in his head. 

  1. Mark said Donghyuck seemed sad
  2. Donghyuck thinks he’s been texting someone else. In his video he started to say a name. “ _Yang—”_
  3. Jeno’s classmate name is Yangyang, and he knows Donghyuck. Moreso, this Yangyang is _over_ Donghyuck. 
  4. Donghyuck is clearly not over Yangyang, if the messages Jeno had just scrolled through were any indication. 
  5. If he stalls any longer he is going to stand Donghyuck up. 



He shoulders his backpack and hurries out of the building. 

Only when he stops in front of the coffeeshop does he realize one other thing: Donghyuck is expecting Yangyang from class. This is going to go terribly. 

As expected, when Jeno enters the coffeeshop and his arrival is announced by a soft bell above the door, only one pair of eyes meets his in the sparsely crowded café. Donghyuck looks right back down though, eyes going back to the screen of his phone, while Jeno keeps looking at him. 

He looks different than in the video he had sent. 

Obviously. 

That had been Donghyuck in a dark club, all neon light and slurred words and glitter. 

This Donghyuck is a hoodie and slightly tousled hair, eyes a little tired and a steaming mug of coffee in front of him. There’s soft afternoon light filtering in through the storefront and quiet jazz in the background. 

In Jeno’s head, Jisung’s voice echoes:  _ “Marry the guy from your phone.” _

His ears are presumably scarlet red as he gingerly sits down in the chair across from Donghyuck. 

“Sorry, I’m waiting for someone,” Donghyuck says. 

“I know,” Jeno replies, and wants to bite his tongue the very next second. But he is already in this mess, and all he can do now is sprint the rest of the way with his eyes closed and hope he somehow makes it out on the other end. So he keeps talking. 

“You’ve been texting me for the past few weeks, and I don’t know you and you were clearly drunk so I just ignored you. Or tried to. Because you said a lot of stuff and then my friend said that you seemed sad and I don’t know why I cared about that, but I did? And at that point I should have probably already told you that I wasn’t Yangyang. Which— I have no idea who Yangyang is, but you said his name once, and he is in my film history class, I just found out, and he was talking about you. Nothing bad. Just that you’d be at a party this weekend. Anyways, you thought you were texting him and you seemed sad and I should have told you, but I thought you would be more sad, so I didn’t. But my friend said I should just talk to you so now you are here, and I am here, and you thought it was someone else and you probably think I’m a huge creep. And I’m really sorry. For not telling you, and also for being kind of intrusive that one time and sending you all those links, that wasn’t really thought through. I mean, I thought about it a lot, but it was still dumb. Sorry.” 

He thinks for a moment. 

“Okay, I’m done.” 

For the entirety of his tirade he had kept his eyes focused on the steam from Donghyuck’s mug, but now he gathers the courage to meet the others eyes. Only he can’t see them, because the second he looks up, Donghyuck’s entire face screws up and he starts laughing. Cackling even. 

Jeno just blinks and waits it out. He’s not entirely sure what the sensible thing to do here is. 

Donghyuck takes a while to calm down, some students from neighbouring tables shooting them looks. When he is done, he takes a deep breath, and Jeno kind of expects him to tell him to fuck off and that will be it. 

What Donghyuck says instead is: “Do you want a coffee?” 

“Uh.” Jeno answers intelligently. 

“I’ll get you a latte,” Donghyuck decides. And then he’s already getting up and going to the counter and Jeno still doesn’t know what the sensible thing to do here is. 

When Donghyuck sits back down, there’s still that amused little glint in his eyes, and a steaming mug in his hands which Jeno accepts like it might bite him. 

“So,” Donghyuck says. “My name is Donghyuck. But it seems like you already knew that.” 

“Yes,” Jeno confirms, a little sheepish. Then, because the realization takes several beats too long to register in his brain he adds, rushed: “Jeno. I’m Jeno.”

“Hi, Jeno. I want you to know that I don’t have a drinking problem.” He says it very casually. So casually in fact, that for a moment, Jeno forgets to be confused and replies: 

“Are you sure about that?” 

Again, Donghyuck laughs. “I have been blessed with very responsible friends, they wouldn’t let me,” He explains. And that makes a little bit of sense, at least. 

“Your friend’s right though,” Donghyuck continues,again, very casually. “I’m pretty sad.” 

“Oh,” Is what Jeno comes up with. “About what?”

Donghyuck waves a hand around like he’s trying to swat away a fly. “Oh you know, a little bit of everything, bad breakup I should be over by now, school—” He points a finger at Jeno, “You probably know more than I do!” 

“I really don’t,” Jeno shakes his head. 

“Well, you definitely know more about me than I know about you. All I know is that you can compile a mean impromptu intervention in the middle of the night, seem to care way too much about strangers and look cute in that sweater.” 

“Sorry,” Jeno flails a little. “And, uh, that’s what my friends say too. And. Um. Thank you?” 

He really doesn’t know why or how, but Donghyuck seems to be enjoying this, and he is being told to fuck off 100% less than he expected. And the latte is really good. And Donghyuck has a bit of sugar stuck to the corner of his mouth from the half eaten pastry that lies forgotten between them. 

“I think I deserve to know a little more,” Donghyuck muses. 

“Would you— Would you like to?” Jeno is rolling with this. He doesn’t know in which direction he is rolling but he is  _ rolling.  _

“Very much so,” Donghyuck nods. 

So Jeno tells him. He tells him about the class he just came from, and about dinner the other day which Jisung had just barely not burned. He tells him about his last relationship, because it seems only fair. Donghyuck’s eyes shine with mirth as he tells him about how huis roommate would be grilling him about this meeting the second he got home, and he laughs when he tells him how Mark had suggested he seek him out at a party. 

“Don’t get me wrong,” Donghyuck says, still giggling a little. “I’m a delight at parties.” He gestures between them. “But this is pretty nice.” 

“It is?” Jeno asks. By now he’s pretty sure Donghyuck is not going to drop-kick him into the sun, so he might as well find out why. Which is why he continues, after Donghyuck prompts him to with a cocked eyebrow: “I kind of expected you to go fuck myself the second I finished explaining, and be done with it.” 

Donghyuck hums as he considers this. Then he nods. “I probably would have.” 

“But you didn’t,” Jeno states. 

“Nope!” Donghyuck grins. 

“Wh—” Jeno starts but Donghyuck cuts him off. 

“Are you free tonight?” 

Jeno has given up on the hope that he will maybe not be confused at one point in this conversation. He nods. 

“Sweet. You’re taking me out to dinner.” 

“I am?” 

“You are,” Donghyuck is still grinning. “To make up to me that you basically catfished me.” 

“I don’t think that’s the definition of catf—” 

“And in the vulnerable, drunk, heartbroken state I’ve been in too!” Donghyuck speaks over him. “You better buy me some nice dessert later.” 

Jeno stares at him for a moment. “Are you asking me out?” 

“No,” Donghyuck replies, shaking his head. “ _ You _ are asking  _ me _ out.” 

And with that, he shoves the rest of his pastry into his mouth and makes to get up. “7 o’clock sharp. I’ll text you where to pick me up.” He winks, and then he is gone. 

Jeno isn’t quite sure how long he stares at the now vacated seat in front of him as Jisung’s voice echoes in his head, telling him over and over again to  _ marry the guy in your phone. _

_ Ping.  _

_ Ping.  _

_ Ping.  _

**[donghyuck??? sent a location]**

**there you go. can’t wait ;)))**

**also make sure youre free on friday. i have a feeling you’re going to a party with me**

  
  


Jeno still doesn’t think he understands what just happened, but he also thinks now that he has started rolling with it, he can’t exactly stop. It’s a very steep hill. 

  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> i had so so so much fun with this prompt!! hope u had fun reading! 
> 
> also please forgive me if the ending seems rushed and makes no sense i thought i had finished this fic but HADNT so i am currently typing this high on cough syrup and kinda delirious. keep track of your deadlines, kids,


End file.
